WE SEE NO STARS

 

Name: The Abode of Life

Author: Lee Correy

Publication Date: 5/1982

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #6)

Page Number: 207

Historian’s Note:  Given the events mentioned in the book this story takes place sometime after the episode “A Private Little War.” Most likely it takes place sometime between season 2 and season 3 of classic Star Trek.

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle           Lieutenant Patten                    Lieutenant Gordon            Dr. Joseph M'Benga        Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      Yeoman First Class Janice Rand             Noal       Orun     Othol       Pallar         Parna

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Mercan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise has a rather routine mission exploring the gravitational anomalies in the Orion Arm.  They are trying to stay one step ahead of the Klingons in case there are worlds available for colonization. Suddenly one of the anomalies erupts in an unexpected manner causing the Enterprise to fly uncontrollably hundreds of parsecs away.  This does massive damage to the ship’s warp engines.  The damage is too extensive, and they won’t be able to fix it without a Starbase or some other help.  They look around to find they are in a strange solar system.  There is only one planet and the radiation from the star makes it so the planet’s inhabitants would not be able to see any stars outside of their own.

Finding a lost world

It now seems hopeless that any significantly advanced civilization is there to help them.  There doesn’t seem to be any transportation system nor communications network.  However, looks can be deceiving.  Upon closer examination it appears these people with their starless night have no need for starships, but they have built transporters similar to many warp capable species.  Maybe these are advanced like us after all?  Kirk decides to form a landing party and to go find out.  The landing party consists of the Captain, Scotty, Rand, McCoy, and some security officers.

Finding their way on a strange world

When they beam down to the planet, they run into a group of people called the Technic.  At first Kirk thinks that is what they mean by “engineer”, so he tries to present Scotty as one.  These people are very tall and have gold skin, so they find the Enterprise landing party’s appearance strange.  It turns out “Technic” is a group in rebellion against established authority.  The enforcement arm of that authority, the Proctors, show up an arrest the landing party and the one Technic who didn’t run away, Orun.  They are brought before a third group called the Guardians, who are the authority on this planet. 

They reach the Guardians quickly due to the planet’s transporter system.  It seems to be better than Starfleet’s.  Every member in their society carries a device that allows them to transport anywhere on the surface in an instant.  This works so well that they have no automobiles, planes, ships, or trains, for they have no need of them. They also don’t have any sort of communication system as anyone can just beam to someone they need to talk to.  It is a world without distance.

Everyone seems very polite, and the landing party soon notices why.  Every individual they can see is carrying a side arm.  Dueling in a quick draw is a thing on this planet.  Kirk introduces himself and the landing party as visitors from another world.  The Guardians are polite and withdraw to confer with themselves.  Left alone with Orun, the Technic explains many things about the local culture to the landing party.  He tells them that his people are on this planet as the Abode of Life, a place where life was brought from a tiny sliver of space they can sometimes see in their sky.  This planet is the only place where life can exist so it’s special.  The Technic are a group of people who started to challenge the general narrative.  He also explains their gun culture and lets them know if they want to have people’s respect then they will need to open carry as well.  They get arms and open carry over McCoy’s objection.  They also get a genetic sample up to the ship. It turns out they are related to a number of species that the Federation is aware of, including Vulcans.

The Guardians return and declare that the members of the Enterprise landing party are all Technic genetic creations.  They will do an experiment on some of them by forcing them to face the ordeal out on the service.  “The Ordeal” is when the sun goes through its strange flares baking the system with extra radiation.  The Guardians came to power based on their ability to predict these things and have taken precautions for them.  The landing party naturally doesn’t want to be made experiments, so they escape, which wasn’t hard because they weren’t really being held.  They find more members of the Technic who are more friendly than the Guardians.  However, the Guardians have followed. Kirk orders Spock to beam down so he can prove they aren’t from this planet, but the Guardians think it’s another Technic trick, so Kirk does an emergency beam out and the landing party, with the Technic allies, are sent to the Enterprise.

Everyone required to pack heat. 

 It turns out the crew of the Enterprise are not so likely to survive the sun’s ordeal.  Spock discovers that they could fix everything with two well-placed photon torpedoes.  If it works not only, will it save them now, but it will save the planet Mercan from ever having “The Ordeal” ever again.  This would mean a big change to their culture.  Worse, if they screw this up it could lead to the destruction of the solar system.     Kirk decides it’s worth the risk and they do it.  It works and now they must decide what to do next.

Enterprise must host diplomatic function

Kirk decides that the three powers on this planet must talk and that he would be willing to host, with the Prime Directive already shattered, they might as well go all the way.  The Proctors and the Technic are willing, but the Guardians are being pig-headed about it.  It takes a phaser fight and some communicator use, but eventually the Guardians agree.  This is where things get hard for Kirk.  Kirk just wants to host the meeting, but all three groups ask for the Enterprise crew to take a much more active role.  Kirk tolerates he and his officers serving as advisers to the three groups.  In the remarkable short time of ten days the Mercans have completed the planet-wide constitution called “The Enterprise Agreement.”  All three groups agree to share power and alter traditional doctrine to acknowledge other life in the universe.  The Technics aid the Enterprise in their repairs.  Federation xenobiologists have been assigned for the second contact, and Mercan people are looking forward to joining the Federation soon.

Additional thoughts: This was one of the first two Star Trek books that I ever bought.  The other one being “The Disinherited.” I bought them when I was eleven years old at Boarders bookstore located in the Windham Mall in my hometown of Windham, Maine on May 2, 1992.  I know the exact date because on the back of the front cover I signed my name, put in my address, phone number and dated it. You know in case I lost it and you found it, you could mail it back to me and call me ahead of time to let me know what you did.  The reason I picked the two that I did is I was rather drawn to their striking covers. Both were eye catching and stimulated the imagination. 

Not the one but close enough!

This was a fascinating story and probably one of the best “Prime Directive” debates.  Most Prime Directive debates involve “General Order Number One: Good or Bad.”  This one takes a much more nuanced view and asks: are we always judging whether to make first contact based on the correct reason?  As most fans know there are two levels to the Prime Directive. The first (although listed second) is no interference in the internal affairs of others.  Are the Romulans having a civil war, and do you like one side more than the other?  Too bad, the people of the Federation don’t get to decide the fate of the Romulans only the Romulans can.  Now if the Romulans were attacked by Omne and they requested help that is different.  The second part (but listed first) of the Prime Directive is its most stringent.  It was first spelled out in the episode “Bread and Circuses.” 

a) No identification of self or mission.

b) No interference with the social, cultural, or technological development of said planet.

c) No reference to space, other worlds, or advanced civilizations.

The level of development that a species/culture needs to achieve in order for the Federation to establish diplomatic relations is warp drive.  That is usually a good standard, but in this case a planet whose people can’t see the stars will have people who have no motive to attempt space travel.  Yet, they developed a superior transporter system to the Federation, and they have matter/antimatter power plants.  With that in mind, should Captain Kirk try to establish relations?  He decides yes but he realizes Starfleet might not agree with his logic. 

I do I have an issue with the whole “fixing the sun thing.”  Not that they did but how they went about it.  The situation was the sun’s ordeal was going to put the crew at risk of death.  Not guaranteed death, but clearly a likely death.  They had a chance to save themselves by fixing the sun and it would benefit the people on the planet.  However, if they messed up, they all might die, including everyone on the planet.  I don’t feel they had a right to make that decision for those people.  Instead, they should have just taken the risk themselves.  It reminds me of the end of the first season of Flash, where Team Flash of STAR Labs are helping Barry go back in time to save his mom but along the way they discover there is a chance that doing so would open up black hole on the Earth and kill everyone.  They then say, “well Barry deserves this because of all the times he saved people.”  Saving thousands does not give you the right to gamble the lives of billions.  I would have felt better if they presented the sun’s problems as ultimately going to kill the people of the planet if they don’t act.  The heroes in this moment don’t act like heroes. 

Origin of Starfleet

Similar in many ways!

I thought it was interesting when Spock and Kirk were talking about history and Kirk not wanting to accidentally become a conquistador.  My favorite part was when they explained that Starfleet was based on the United States Coast Guard. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  That organization has a command structure similar to the Navy and they also have a law enforcement arm to it.  Kirk’s actions in "Mudd’s Women" shows Captain Kirk in a law enforcement type role.

This book takes place during Classic Star Trek.  However, this book came out a year after “The Motion Picture.” I love how the author uses that to his advantage such as when Kirk and Spock are talking about how to deal with conflicting emotions, Spock references Vulcans who try to undergo Kolinahr.  Spock then expresses his desire to someday do that.  Which is a great little foreshadowing to Spock’s actual actions in the first film. 

There is a minor error at the end of the book.  It’s not that big of a deal but I found it annoying. Kirk twice refers to Spock’s rank as “Lieutenant Commander.” The problem is this story clearly takes place sometime past the middle of the second season.  This means Spock is now a full commander not a lieutenant commander.  What is weird is the author gets it right through most of the book.  Now it is typical to refer to a lieutenant commander as “commander” but when Kirk is noting his Captain’s Log he refers to both his first officer and chief engineer as “Commander Spock and Lt. Commander Scott.”  So it appears Spock’s correct title is being used here.  So, I view the error in the last few chapters as lazy editing.

 I like McCoy’s pep talk in the end to Kirk.  Where he tells the Captain that he should not think of himself as a conquistador rather as the second coming of Commodore Matthew Perry.  

Should it be canon: Yes, I don’t see why not.  It is a self-contained story that doesn’t conflict any standing canon.  It would be a great addition to canonical adventures in Star Trek.

Cover Art: The cover art is very beautiful and as I mentioned earlier it caught my eye and triggered my then-11-year-old imagination.  The Enterprise hangs in the sky over a mountain range. Kirk and Spock are on the ground in identical uniforms with no rank insignia, but the Star Trek delta is seen clearly on Kirk’s shirt. Kirk is holding a type of phaser.  As nice as the image is it is a complete lie.  Based on the uniforms and especially the Enterprise in post-retrofit state make it seem that this story takes place after “The Motion Picture.”  It doesn’t.  It clearly takes place sometime after the middle of the second season and before the third season of classic Star Trek. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5